09 May 2009

Their license plate slogan is no joke, because New Hampshire got ranked the #1 state for freedom by a recent George Mason University study. From Newsmax:

The study, which calls itself the “first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres,” made a host of findings:

-The freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending -- and middling levels of regulation and paternalism.

-New York is the least overall free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland.

Full text of the study, which was based on economic, social, educational, and personal freedoms. I was rather surprised that Nevada didn't rank higher, because a similar Reason study last year put Las Vegas as the #1 freest city. The George Mason study also points out that bluer states might be more concerned with Abu Zubaydah's civil liberties, but fall short with their own citizens by over-regulating everything from homeschooling to seat belt laws to taxes on cigarettes. I can attest that it's harder to find a place to buy beer in Maryland (ranking a Stalinesque #47 for freedom) than at a Mormon singles ward.

The small state of New Hampshire has produced everything from true fiscal conservative Senator Judd Gregg to punk rock madman GG Allin. So who else would you expect to be #1?

1 comments:

I hope we in New Hampshire will be able to hold onto the #1 spot. There is a lot being pushed down in the Capital that goes against freedom. A cigarette tax was just recently passed and we may get a seat belt law real soon. Bastard Dems here are jumping on the nanny state bandwagon like there is no tomorrow! I don't know where to move that hasn't already been liberalized to death! I guess I'll have to find a cave to hide out in.

Who is This Clown?

Nixon is a former Navy guy who did a couple of deployments at sea and spent a year in Iraq. He enjoys reading and writing about the strange intersection between war, politics, and the media. He enjoys being an ex-pat and NGO employee in Bangkok for the time being.